Saturday, July 16, 2011

07/16/2011
For having requested, and
received, utility vehicles for their dioceses from the Philippine
Charity Sweepstakes Office, seven bishops were pilloried by the PCSO,
the Palace and Noynoy himself, tearing not just their reputations, but
the reputation and yes, dignity of the local institutional Catholic
Church.
For having deliberately leaked false information, enabling
the current yellow PCSO chief to damage the bishops and evidently
through the hiring of an expensive “crisis” Public Relations practioner
and his firm, Noynoy, through his Palace mouthpieces, dismissed calls
for Margie Juico, chairman of the PCSO, who falls under the category of
Kaibigan and Kaalyado of the now infamous KKK, to apologize and to
resign for the character assassination on the bishops and the church
they committed..... MORE

07/16/2011
Never has the nation had such
a divisive and quarrelsome president as it has today in Noynoy Aquino,
which bodes ill for both the polity and the country.

While it is
true that the nation has experienced divisiveness owing to, of all
things, political inclinations, it was hardly in the same degree of
divisiveness as it is being experienced today, with all credit for this
naturally going to Noynoy, who can never hope to ever unite the people
behind him under his presidency.

His mother, Cory, who was
propelled to power and position through the Edsa Revolt route, was a
divisive president, only less so, when compared to her son. Their
similarities rest on the fact that both are expending all their focus
and efforts to destroy their predecessors, with Cory ending up not being
able to achieve much, by way of governance and even in ushering
prosperity and improvement in the lives of the Filipino people. and more
importantly, bringing unity and peace to the nation.

Under the
Ramos regime, it can be said that in the matter of divisiveness, there
was little, or at least not felt as much as his focus was hardly on
bringing Cory Aquino’s political foes to jail, unlike his predecessor
Cory. Yet he was not unlike Marcos in his desire to extend his time in
the presidency, through his “Pirma” people’s initiative to amend the
Charter and of course to destroy the electoral chances of his successor..... MORE

07/16/2011
DAKAR — Launched by a group
of rappers in January, a movement called “Fed up” has shaken Senegal’s
political scene and become the symbol of protests against President
Abdoulaye Wade’s regime.

Youths have rallied, denouncing the
85-year-old Wade’s efforts to run for a third term as president as well
as crippling power cuts, corruption and other social ills.

“We
want a democratic revolution in Senegal, to change things by voting,”
said Fadel Barro, a journalist and coordinator of the movement which was
started by a group of friends, the oldest of whom is 33 years.
“On
January 16 there was a power cut which lasted 20 hours (in Dakar). We
said that something has to be done. A group of rappers from the group
‘Keur Gui’ — which has a history of challenging authority — took the
lead,” he added..... MORE

07/15/2011
MANILA — Thieves and art
dealers are the usual suspects, but mildew and flashbulbs are just as
dangerous for some of the Philippines’ beleaguered cultural treasures.
From
a 30,000-year-old skull fragment of one of its first human inhabitants
to imposing churches built during Spanish colonial rule, the Southeast
Asian archipelago has a stunning display of artifacts showcasing its
diverse history.

But they are under threat on every front.

Even
at the National Museum where half a million archaeological items are
supposed to be protected, a lack of funds means they could be as
vulnerable as treasures outside its walls, said its chief conservator
Orlando Abinion.

Even at the National Museum where half a million archaeological items
are supposed to be protected, a lack of funds means they could be as
vulnerable as treasures outside its walls, said its chief conservator
Orlando Abinion..... MORE

07/15/2011
By the time you read this, I
shall be winging to a family vacation I’m truthfully apprehensive to
take. It’s going to be my first long one without my husband Sig, and
just the thought of being without the dear man beside me on the plane
and messing up his side of our hotel room is enough to make me cry.

The
road show tour of Aawitan Kita sa Amerika last May was work, and hard
work at that, so there wasn’t much time to miss anybody. The next three
weeks are purely for rest and recreation, how to fill in all the hours
of the day without my partner of close to 60 years is a problem a woman
my age can no longer solve with all the available shopping in the world.

Same
time last year, we were in Milan, from where we motored to the northern
part of Italy. Sig was smiling all throughout, there’s hardly a picture
from that trip with him not baring his teeth, todo ngisi talaga, posing
all over the place with family and friends, whether on the bus, an
air-borne cable car, or gondola. Did he know he was on his last vacation
with us?.... MORE

07/15/2011
P-Noy and his economic
managers should thank San Miguel Corp. president and COO Ramon Ang for
fast-tracking, as it were, the rehabilitation and upgrading of the
Caticlan-Boracay International Airport in time for the second session of
the 15th Congress. At least, with this $300 million long overdue
undertaking they will have one Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project
to bandy around as they prepare for the second round of roadshows meant
to cajole investors to invest in the “big-ticket” projects, mainly
infrastructure, works designed to catapult the country to the top tier
members of Asean such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and, of course,
Singapore whose basic infra networks and services, i.e., roads, bridges,
airports, ports, telecoms and even power, are considered world-class
and, yes, affordable.

It was not meant to be this way. After the
“golden years of infrastructure works” as the Marcos years have come to
be known, succeeding administrations wanted to sustain the momentum
using the old ODA route. Alas, the Asian financial crisis set in and
development funding for such big-ticket items almost dried up. So, the
stage was set for the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law which was the
original framework for various funding schemes such as this
administration’s PPP. The problem is the record as far as these BOT/PPP
variations has been very spotty..... MORE

07/15/2011
WASHINGTON — Rupert Murdoch
built his vast fortune selling newspapers, expanding a single daily in
his native Australia into a media and entertainment empire that spans
the globe.

But the phone-hacking scandal in Britain that led to
the shock closure of the News of the World is raising the
once-unthinkable possibility of a News Corp. without newspapers — or at
least no British dailies.

Within hours of the announcement that
News Corp. was abandoning its bid for full control of British satellite
TV broadcaster BSkyB, Nomura analyst Michael Nathanson was arguing for a
strategic reorientation by the company..... MORE

Farm
workers led by the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita
(Ambala) and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU) have made good
their vow to assert their rights to the land and started cultivating the
500-hectare lands barricaded and claimed by the Rizal Commercial
Banking Corp. (RCBC) and its partner, the Luisita Industrial Park Corp.,
located in Barangay Balete inside Hacienda Luisita, the vast estate
owned by President Aquino’s family.

“This direct action by
Hacienda Luisita farmers is the strongest form of asserting their just
and legitimate right to Hacienda Luisita lands,” Kilusang Magbubukid ng
Pilipinas (KMP) secretary general Danilo Ramos yesterday said.

Quoting
reports from Ambala, Ramos said “more than 200 Hacienda Luisita farm
workers, including village officials, joined the ‘Bungkalan’
(cultivation) campaign.”

“Farm workers have already slashed the
tall grass on the RCBC area and registered their strongest opposition to
the Supreme Court (SC) order,” he stressed, adding that placards were
installed in the area bearing the slogans: “Junk the referendum! This
land is ours!”.... MORE

They’re supposed to act as fiscalizers in the upper chamber, yet they appear to be nowhere in action, most of the time.

Those
considered to be in the ranks of the “opposition” in the Senate have
posted the most number of either absences or official leaves of absence
in the last First Regular Session of the 15th Congress.

Except for
Senators Panfilo Lacson and Antonio Trillanes IV, who both had to deal
with some “legal issues,” and the reason they incurred 79 and 49
absences, respectively, and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago who filed an
indefinite sick leave due to hypothyroidism, one could only wonder on
the excuses of their colleagues.

Senators Manuel Villar Jr., Alan
Peter Cayetano, Loren Legarda, Edgardo Angara, Manuel “Lito” Lapid,
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Pia Cayetano had the most number of
instances where they failed to attend their regular plenary session due
to “official missions.”.... MORE

07/16/2011
A showdown of municipal
festivals highlighted in the recent observance of Tourism Day in Lanao
del Norte as part of its activities lined-up for the province 52nd
anniversary that runs from June 18 to July 4.

Mostly depicting
rituals of planting and harvesting farm produce and aquamarine products
and ending peace among warring groups, the showdown re-invented
long-cherished cultures which the people of the province have been
treasuring.

These festivals included the following Sagingan
(Banana) of Tubod, Humayan (Rice) of Kapatagan, Niyugan (Coconut) of
Magsaysay, Nangkaan (Jackfruit) of Maigo, Sarimanok > (Chicken) of
Kolambugan and Hugyaw sa Kadagatan (Aquamarine) of Kauswagan..... MORE

07/16/2011
Philippine job losses from
unrest in the Arab world and the Japan quake have had little overall
impact on the amount of money the huge Filipino overseas workforce sends
home, the Central Bank said yesterday.

Cash transfers rose 6.2
percent from a year earlier to $7.9 billion in the five months to May,
slightly down from its 6.6 percent growth in the same period last year,
it said in a statement.

May transfers rose 6.9 percent year-on-year to $1.7 billion.

“Data...
showed that Filipino workers continued to be deployed abroad,
offsetting the job losses resulting from social unrest in the Middle
East and North African region and the disasters that occurred in Japan,”
it said..... MORE

07/16/2011
In an effort to boost the
country’s chance of landing in the list of the “seven wonders of
nature,” the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BPS) has committed two
million votes for the Puerto Princesa Underground River in the ongoing
online voting to determine the top seven wonders. BSP Secretary General
J. Rizal C. Pangilinan issued a national memorandum addressed to the
officials of the movement’s 117 local councils and 10 regions to conduct
their own awareness campaign about the ongoing vote..... MORESource: The Daily Tribune

While
his chief foreign affairs adviser is working hard to finalize his
upcoming state visit to China, President Aquino seems oblivious that he
would peeve the Chinese government anew as he declared the Philippines
would bring the Spratlys issue to the United Nations International
Tribunal for the Laws of the Sea (ITLOS).

In an interview Friday,
Aquino said the Philippines will insist on its position to bring the
Spratlys issue before the UN and would assert the same when he visits
China anytime this year.

“I think that is the only recourse open
to us. We want to establish first and precisely who is right in terms of
the definition under the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the
Seas,” the President said during an interview in Calamba City after the
turn-over ceremony of a mass housing project for the police and the
military on Friday.